While I was sad to leave the US again a few months ago, I was also looking forward to coming back to the Korean lifestyle. In fact, I like the lifestyle here so much that if it were possible to take my friends and family from the states and move them all here, I’d take that deal. In today’s post I’ll give a few of the reasons why I enjoy my Korean lifestyle more than the one back in California. Continue Reading →
As a marketplace business, my startup, Unanchor.com faces a chicken-and-egg problem. We need itinerary writers to attract travelers and travelers to attract itinerary writers. To address the itinerary side of the problem, two months ago Mohammad and I unveiled our most aggressive program to date. We offered to pay writers up to $100 upfront in a revenue advance. In this post, I’ll give an update on the program and its results so far. Continue Reading →
People have always joked to me that Koreans eat dog. There have been many times when I told people that I lived in Korea and the first question they’ve asked is, how many times did you eat dog? Having lived in Korea well over 7 months (including last year) and never actually having seen a Dog restaurant, I thought it was a myth. I assumed it was North Koreans who ate dog, giving South Koreans a bad name. It turns out, I was wrong.
Last week I found out how to say Dog Soup in Korean (보신탕) and have now found 2 places within a 5-minute walk of my apartment that serve it. One is a hole-in-the-wall that was actually on my list to try (I’m a sucker for hole-in-the-wall restaurants).
The irony of this place is amazing. As you walk towards the restaurant you pass an animal store with adorable puppies sitting in the window ready to be purchased. Literally 2 doors down and around the corner…dog soup restaurant.
I wonder if the puppy salesmen ever gets desperate to make a sale and says, “Today’s the last day for this little guy. Unfortunately he’s getting old and we’re going to send him next door…unless you can take him off of our hands” while gesturing towards the dog soup restaurant.
The real question of the day is, do I try dog? I’m pretty tempted…just to say I have.
Random Additional Fact: In Korean, dogs say “Mung, Mung” — instead of the English equivalent ”Bow-wow” or “Bark, Bark”. The nickname for Dog Soup is then of course “Mung, Mung Soup”.
Having a blog is a funny thing. At the beginning, it’s really exciting. You’ve got a thousand post ideas, funny stories, and great pictures to share so you start writing. Then, you get your first comment – things are even more exciting! But then, things start to slip. You miss a week. So you apologize and vow never to miss a week again! But, it happens again. You see this pattern time and time again with blogs.
When I started Life After Cubes I vowed to not let this happen. In today’s post I’m going to outline our plan for this blog and I’ll also tell you a little about our new Unanchor Blog. Continue Reading →
A question I’ve been getting a lot lately is, how do I spend my time? In today’s post, I’ll share how I’ve been keeping myself busy, as well as some reflections after almost 2 months of living in Seoul. Continue Reading →
Well hello!
Unfortunately I’ve become the half of LAC that posts about once a month now. I can’t help it though, I’m busy supporting our family in a foreign country! I’ve been trudging through the jungles of the South Korean public elementary school system for 2 months now. Crazy that it’s already been 2 full months!
My latest post is actually on Jason’s Unanchor blog where I include a comprehensive list of items to pack for a long-term trip. If you or someone you know is preparing to leave for one of those soon, and you or that person happens to be a female who cares about hygiene, point them towards my post at Unanchor!
Random Thought of the Day: Every day I grow increasingly more suspicious of the “Korean Diet Illusion”. I call it the “Korean Diet Illusion” because it is quite mind boggling how much food Koreans can eat and not gain any weight. Please explain to me how the hundreds of fried chicken and beer joints are packed with people stuffing plates of fried chicken into their skinny bodies? How is there a doughnut cafe on every corner with tons of skinny people inside partaking in cream-filled deliciousness? Do Koreans secretly get their own menu with calorie-less items??!! Do I coincidentally happen to catch them eating their one and only meal of the day??!!
If you take a look at Jim’s biography, you’ll quickly wonder if he even has time to sleep. He’s a founder (Triporati), partner at a venture capital firm (CMEA), investor, advisor, and is involved with a few philanthropic organizations to top it off. In fact, Jim’s first company actually handed out flyers that said “sleep is for sissies.”
In today’s interview Jim discusses his first company, Preview Travel. Preview began in 1985 (not a typo), went public in 1997 and ended up merging with Travelocity to create the 3rd largest site on the Internet at the time (only behind Amazon and Ebay). We also discuss the many changes that Preview went through before eventually being one of the first companies to sell travel online through a small partner called America Online.
We also discuss his latest travel startup, Triporati.com. Triporati is helping people discover what travel destinations to choose based on their interests. It’s been called the “vacation genome project”. This wasn’t just an idea he thought about one day and started building the next. His team spent 9 months thinking through the idea and bouncing it off of dozens and dozens of people. They went to potential distribution partners, customers and industry experts and asked them, “why is this the dumbest thing you have ever heard?”.
In South Korea, I have many names; GET, NET, NES, “wun-uh-min”, teacher, Sharon teacher, etc. I feel like there are hoards of different names for what I do here, which is teach English at an elementary school. GET means Guest English Teacher, NET means Native English Teacher, NES means Native English Speaker, and wun uh min means something along the same lines in Korean. I have been a GET for three full weeks now and I would like to enlighten you about my experiences so far, some of which are great and others which are… kind of obnoxious. Continue Reading →
Upon arriving in Seoul a few weeks ago, the first question I asked Sharon was, “how is our apartment?” Her response, “small – I almost cried when I first saw it”. I knew from her response that we were going to be on our own finding a new apartment in a country where we didn’t speak the language. This was a process I wasn’t looking forward to. Continue Reading →
This has been a post I’ve had on my “list of posts” for a long time. Well, I finally got around to doing it. Over on the new Unanchor.com Blog, I’ve put together a list of the over 75 different items I brought on our year-long trip, all with pictures and links. If you’ve ever wondered what we traveled with or are looking for packing advice, check out the new post: http://blog.unanchor.com/2011/03/what-to-pack-for-a-long-term-or-rtw-trip-male-edition/
 |
Jason Demant & Sharon Duckworth left their Silicon Valley jobs in 2009 to pursue a Life After Cubes. This site chronicles their travels and entrepreneurial aspirations. Read More...
Our other site: Unanchor.com - Find the perfect travel itinerary or write and sell your own! |
